Constant fear of aspiration pneumonia- is this irrational??

[lynne2809]

Hey everyone. I have become very anxious about the health of my 2.5 year old Lionhead, Mickey, since his most recent episode of GI stasis and some other GI issues that have since resolved. I saw a few online rabbit forums discussing aspiration pneumonia in rabbits and now I am terrified. It sounds like pneumonia is essentially not survivable for rabbits and that every rabbit that chokes will get aspiration pneumonia and die, so I am really worried about my rabbit getting it all the time. I work 4 days a week from 8 am until 7 pm, so I am not home all day and now I am so scared that he is going to choke on his pellets and aspirate and I won’t be aware of it and he will end up developing aspiration pneumonia because I will be completely unaware if I was at work. He eats Oxbow Adult Timothy pellets and I used to free feed him, but I have since limited his amount of pellets due to his GI issues. I feed him out of a little hanging bowl in his cage. I have started to place a handful of hay into the hanging bowl and mixing about 1 tablespoon of pellets throughout the hay to hopefully slow down his eating, but I am worried that won’t be enough. Does anybody have any advice or reassurance? Is this just an irrational fear that I really should not be worrying about? Thanks in advance!

 

[Moonshadow]

If you are worried about him choking on his pellets while you're at work, why don't you only feed him his pellets when you're home? That way, he only eats hay while you're gone so you don't need to worry and you can monitor how he eats pellets when you're there and can give it to him in person.

 

[lynne2809]

If you are worried about him choking on his pellets while you're at work, why don't you only feed him his pellets when you're home? That way, he only eats hay while you're gone so you don't need to worry and you can monitor how he eats pellets when you're there and can give it to him in person.

That would technically be an option, but he’s used to eating them all day and I leave for work so early in the morning that he would only be eating pellets at night. He’s used to eating them overnight and during the day while I’m at work, so I would just feel bad only allowing him to have pellets from like 7-10 pm every day.

 

[Blue eyes]

Is he getting just the 1 tbsp of pellets per day? If he eats that throughout the day then there should be no reason to fear aspiration. That may happen with an exceptionally voracious pellet eater. Yours sounds like a nibbler if I'm understanding you correctly.

My rabbits (and I've had many) would get their pellets one time per day -- in the evening. They would eat that daily portion within 5 minutes time. Never did any aspirate on their pellets.

So long as a rabbit has fresh hay all day long, he doesn't need to have pellets available all day. But if he takes all day to eat a mere tbsp, there shouldn't be a reason to be worried about him wolfing them down and choking.

 

[lynne2809]

Is he getting just the 1 tbsp of pellets per day? If he eats that throughout the day then there should be no reason to fear aspiration. That may happen with an exceptionally voracious pellet eater. Yours sounds like a nibbler if I'm understanding you correctly.

My rabbits (and I've had many) would get their pellets one time per day -- in the evening. They would eat that daily portion within 5 minutes time. Never did any aspirate on their pellets.

So long as a rabbit has fresh hay all day long, he doesn't need to have pellets available all day. But if he takes all day to eat a mere tbsp, there shouldn't be a reason to be worried about him wolfing them down and choking.

Well, I used to just free feed him and I would just fill up the pellets again whenever he finished them, but as I learned more about rabbits I realized that was not a good idea. Now I usually give him 1 tablespoon in the morning and he eats those while I’m at work (he usually eats most of them in one sitting at a random time during the day) and then I come home in the evening and give him about 1/2 tablespoon and he eats those all at once and I give him another 1/2 tablespoon before I go to bed and he eats those throughout the night while I’m asleep. I know it’s probably fine, I’m just so anxious after seeing so many forums about people’s rabbits ending up with aspiration pneumonia. I hope that scattering them in the hay in the hanging bowl helps as a prevention technique. I wouldn’t say he wolfs them down, but he does eat them at a decent pace when he does decide to sit down and eat them in one sitting.

 

[JBun]

Aspiration pneumonia is pretty rare. Keep in mind that the cases you're reading of it occurring, is because people come on forums asking for help when they have problems like this with their rabbit. There are lots of other pet rabbits that have no issues, that you don't hear about. So you're reading worst case.

I would only be concerned if you have actually seen occasions where your rabbit has almost choked on pellets. Otherwise it wouldn't be a foremost concern to me. GI stasis is a far more common ailment in rabbits.

 

[lynne2809]

Aspiration pneumonia is pretty rare. Keep in mind that the cases you're reading of it occurring, is because people come on forums asking for help when they have problems like this with their rabbit. There are lots of other pet rabbits that have no issues, that you don't hear about. So you're reading worst case.

I would only be concerned if you have actually seen occasions where your rabbit has almost choked on pellets. Otherwise it wouldn't be a foremost concern to me. GI stasis is a far more common ailment in rabbits.

Thank you! Pneumonia is one of my biggest fears in terms of my rabbit’s health. Some people have told me that it’s very rare and others have told me that it’s not, so I’m always concerned about him getting aspiration pneumonia or pneumonia secondary to some type of infection and I won’t notice it.

 

[lynne2809]

Aspiration pneumonia is pretty rare. Keep in mind that the cases you're reading of it occurring, is because people come on forums asking for help when they have problems like this with their rabbit. There are lots of other pet rabbits that have no issues, that you don't hear about. So you're reading worst case.

I would only be concerned if you have actually seen occasions where your rabbit has almost choked on pellets. Otherwise it wouldn't be a foremost concern to me. GI stasis is a far more common ailment in rabbits.

Like today he’s been eating, drinking, and playing normally, but I’ve noticed that he’s laying down a lot more than normal and I feel like he sounds a little bit congested. He’s still taking treats, running around and playing, but I’m just always worried that he could have pneumonia and I just don’t know. I took him to the vet about 4-5 months ago because I was very worried that he had pneumonia and he ended up being totally fine.

 

[john.thorpe1952]

I've used dried Mullain petals to treat congestion,and it works well in people and animals,just sprinkle a fewon the pellets.Obviously get themused to them first and don't give massive amounts,but worth a try.Available online.

 

[lynne2809]

Aspiration pneumonia is pretty rare. Keep in mind that the cases you're reading of it occurring, is because people come on forums asking for help when they have problems like this with their rabbit. There are lots of other pet rabbits that have no issues, that you don't hear about. So you're reading worst case.

I would only be concerned if you have actually seen occasions where your rabbit has almost choked on pellets. Otherwise it wouldn't be a foremost concern to me. GI stasis is a far more common ailment in rabbits.

I’ve also seen a lot of forum posts where the owner says that their rabbit was completely fine, suddenly starts breathing a little bit strange with no other issues, and then the rabbit passes away soon after…. Which terrifies me. How common is this?

 

[Blue eyes]

I’ve also seen a lot of forum posts where the owner says that their rabbit was completely fine, suddenly starts breathing a little bit strange with no other issues, and then the rabbit passes away soon after…. Which terrifies me. How common is this?

I don't know where you're seeing these things. I've been on this forum for almost 10 years and don't recall seeing such a thing on this forum. If there was such an incident, I don't remember it and I certainly have not seen "a lot."

The saying "don't borrow trouble" applies here. No use worrying over the very rare possibilities. Just do your best to feed and care for your rabbit properly. It's good to be observant, just don't worry over what "might" happen.

 

[lynne2809]

I don't know where you're seeing these things. I've been on this forum for almost 10 years and don't recall seeing such a thing on this forum. If there was such an incident, I don't remember it and I certainly have not seen "a lot."

The saying "don't borrow trouble" applies here. No use worrying over the very rare possibilities. Just do your best to feed and care for your rabbit properly. It's good to be observant, just don't worry over what "might" happen.

That’s a good point. I think I mainly get worried because sometimes if I put my ear next to his face I can hear a slight whistling sound when he breathes. He’s been doing this for the past few days, but everything else is normal. This happened back in September and he had some clear nasal discharge and I rushed him to the vet freaking out. She said that he looked perfectly healthy with no signs of a URI and sometimes they just have things like this happen from irritation (hay, dust, etc.) or they just make a whistling sound when they are sniffing really hard. I guess I probably shouldn’t rush him to the vet every time I can hear him breathing?

 

[Blue eyes]

Correct. In fact, the process of taking a rabbit to the vet is itself quite stressful. That stress alone can cause issues. So it isn't beneficial to rush the rabbit to the vet without due cause.

 

[lynne2809]

Correct. In fact, the process of taking a rabbit to the vet is itself quite stressful. That stress alone can cause issues. So it isn't beneficial to rush the rabbit to the vet without due cause.

That’s so true, thank you so much. He seems okay still. He’s eating and drinking well, binkying, eating treats, etc. I feel like it’s probably nothing and I’m just overthinking it? I’m sure if it were pneumonia I would know by now? I need to stop stressing myself out by searching on the internet about pneumonia. The main thing that scares me is that most of the forums that I’ve seen end up with the rabbis passing away even if they were treated for the pneumonia, so I’m constantly on edge trying to catch something “early.” It feels like I’m always on alert looking for something

 

[lynne2809]

Correct. In fact, the process of taking a rabbit to the vet is itself quite stressful. That stress alone can cause issues. So it isn't beneficial to rush the rabbit to the vet without due cause.

He seems normal today. He’s eating, drinking, pooping, playing, binkying, etc. He sneezed once today and I can still hear him breathing if I put my head close to his face. Since it’s been a few days, I assume it’s probably nothing to be too concerned about since it would have probably worsened by now if it were a URI or pneumonia? And I assume if it were either of those things he wouldn’t be acting normally and he would have some other symptoms going on as well? I’m such a worried bunny mom

 

[lynne2809]

He still seems ok today! Eating, drinking, pooping, playing, binkying, etc. I can still hear the whistling sound when he sniffs, but I can’t hear it when he’s just breathing normally. Do you guys think it’s okay for me to continue to just watch him and hold off on the vet since it hasn’t gotten any worse and he’s completely normal otherwise? I don’t want to stress him out unless it’s totally necessary.